Rishi Sunak’s announcement that the UK will no longer be able to spend 0.7 per cent of its national income on overseas aid was met with disapproval by the charity sector here, but, unsurprisingly, with little response from grassroots activists and those at the frontline of fighting poverty.
In a year when we are going to have to borrow almost £400 billion I am not surprised we have had to make tough decisions such as this one — at least temporarily. I have fought for years to ask the Government to think differently on how it invests aid.
We should be worried about not only how much the aid is (and I hope we can get the 0.7 per cent back), but also how effective it really is at ensuring lasting change for those it is supposed to benefit. In women’s rights — and on issues such as female genital mutilation, of which I’m a survivor — only a minuscule proportion of the 0.7 per cent has ended up where it needs to be, despite countless promises to fund female activists on the front lines.
This month, along with Jameela Jamil, Leigh-Anne Pinnock and other women, I wrote an open letter to the donor community to call for an end to the racist and colonial narratives that fuel the way we spend aid. I asked them to stop using women of colour on the front of annual reports if they don’t fund them directly. And we really do need to fund them directly, as ending violence against women and girls is the solution to a lot of the world’s problems. In light of this, I hope we can use this week’s announcement as an opportunity to really reset things and make sure the 0.5 per cent (still a significant amount) is invested wisely by trusting those activists at local level. We need to economically empower women in particular and dial down the biased ideas the aid industry often perpetuates about “development”, which can often do more harm than good.
Nimco Ali OBE is co-founder of The Five Foundation, The Global Partnership To End FGM
